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THE 



GREELEY xMONUMENT 



UNVEILED AT GREENWOOD, 



DECEMBER 4. 1876, 




NEW-YORK : 

Francis Hart & Company, 63 Murray Street. 

1877. 

7h 



a^c^h 



THE (tRHELEY monument 



HORACE Greeley died on the 29th of November, 1872, 
and his remains were placed in the family vault on 
Locust Hill in Greenwood Cemetery on Wednesday, Decem- 
ber 4. During the following month the printers of New-York 
proposed to honor his memory with a statue to be composed 
of type-metal. The first action for that object was taken at 
a chapel meeting of the compositors employed on The 
Tribune, held on Thursday, January 9, 1873, when the follow- 
ing preamble and resolutions were passed unanimously : 

Whereas, It has been proposed that the several printing-offices 
in the United States give one or more pounds of old type for the 
purpose of making a statue of Horace Greeley, to be erected in 
the lot in Greenwood where his remains are interred ; and 

Whereas, Type-metal is specially adapted to reproduce sharp and 
definite outlines, and peculiarly fitted to speak in the mute form of 
an image to those who, in after years, visit his resting-place, as it did 
beneath the training of his hand, and the grandeur of his brain, 
and the largeness of his heart ; therefore, 

Resolved, That we approve of the idea of erecting a statue of 
Horace Greeley in Greenwood, made of type-metal which has been 
cast into type and worn out in the service of teaching the people ; 
and further, be it 

Resolved, That we ask of our fellow-craftsmen (many of whom, now 
scattered over the country, have, like ourselves, either vvorked with 
or for him during the forty years gone by) to set up on Monday, 
February 3, 1873, the 626. anniversary of Mr. Greeley's birth, one 
thousand ems, and give the receipts for the same to be expended in 
making and erecting the statue. The money to be forwarded to the 
President of New- York Typographical Union, No. 6, 22 Duane 
street, New- York City, of which Union Mr. Greeley was the first 
President. 



4 T H E G R F. E I, E Y M O N U M E N T . 

Resolved^ That the above preamble and resolutions be given to 
the press of the United States, with a request that they be printed 
and circulated as widely as possible. 

At a special meeting of New-York Typographical Union, 
No. 6, held on Tuesday evening, January 14, the above pre- 
amble and resolutions were unanimously adopted. It was also 

Resolved, That a committee of nine, together with the President and 
Secretary of this Union, be appointed to carry out the objects of the 
above resolutions. 

W. A. Baker, J. Meyerhofif, A.Walsh, R. McKechnie, James 
Marsden, John O'Mahoney, R. Murray, J. Stevenson, P. Crean, 
and the President (Hugh Dalton) and Secretary (M. R. 
Walsh) of the Union were appointed a committee in accord- 
ance with the foregoing resolutions. 

On the 3d of February — the birthday anniversary — the 
compositors in most of the newspaper offices in the large 
cities, and also in several of the small country offices, set a 
thousand ems each, and sent the money for the same to the 
President of the New- York Union. 

The result of this first effort was a sufficiency of old type 
to make a life-size statue of Mr. Greeley, but the receipts in 
money were far below the sum necessary to secure the services 
of a sculptor to prepare a model. In order to increase the 
fund, the Chairman of the Committee sent a circular to the 
Presidents of the several Unions asking for further contribu- 
tions, and one also to the proprietors of printing-offices in the 
principal cities of the country. The response to these appeals 
was a very small increase of the fund. 

The project then remained in abeyance for more than a year. 

At the International Typographical Convention held in 
St. Louis, Mo., in June, 1874, the following preamble and 
resolutions were passed unanimously : 



PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 5 

W/ie/ras, Over a year ago an appeal was made through the 
New-York Typographical Union to the craft all over the country 
for a subscription to erect a monument over the grave of Horace 
Greeley ; and 

Whereas, A sufficient sum has not been received to undertake 
the work; therefore, 

Resolved, That a special committee of thirteen be appointed by 
this International Union to receive contributions for the furtherance of 
the proposed monument to the late Horace Greeley. 

The following committee was appointed: 

Thomas Burke, New-York. 

J. S. Coulter, Leavenworth, Kansas. 

A. J. Weinsheimer, Davenport, Iowa. 

A. W. Brownell, Boston, Mass. 

Allen Coffin, Washington, D. C. 

J. H. O'Bannon, Richmond, Va. 

Homer Bliss, Norwich, Conn. 

J. H. Kelly, Detroit, Mich. 

J. M. Culver, Denver, Col. 

M. B. Mills, Chicago, 111. 

Geo. W. Walker, Albany, N. Y. 

W. J. Smith, Vicksburg, Miss. 

JAS. C. BiRDSONG, Raleigh, N. C. 

Each committeeman was requested to act for a certain 
section of country. Several of them worked with great zeal 
and added somewhat to the fund ; but as the result, on the 
whole, was inadequate, the Chairman began to issue a letter 
to every printing-office in the United States, in which it was 
stated that "one dollar from each printing-office in the 
country, with the amount already on hand, would more than 
suffice to pay for the work. Any money sent to Edmond 
Willson, Cashier American Exchange National Bank (who 
acts as treasurer of the fund), will be duly acknowledged." 
After mailing about a thousand copies, and finding the remit- 
tances were meager, he stopped sending it. He also sent a 
circular to several employers in the printing business, or 



6 THE CIREELEY MONUMENT. 

connected with it as type-founders, press-makers, etc., asking 
them to aid the work by a subscription, and their response 
was very encouraging. 

About this time it became apparent that the " men at 
case " woukl not furnish the requisite sum of money to pay 
for the monument To prevent the movement becoming a 
faihire, the Chairman of the Committee sent an invitation to 
about a dozen of the prominent employing printers and 
type-founders in New-York to meet at " the office of Baker & 
Godwin, 25 Park Row, on Monday, November 30, 1874, at 
one o'clock, for the purpose of having a consultation about 
the best means of increasing the fund in the hands of the 
journeymen printers to the amount necessary to place a 
statue of the late Horace Greeley in Greenwood Cemetery." 

In response to this invitation most of these gentlemen 
attended the meeting. Charles C. Savage was called to the 
chair, and William W. Pasko appointed Secretary. Thomas 
Burke, Chairman of the International Typographical Union 
Committee, after thanking the gentlemen for the promptness 
with which they testified by their presence the interest they 
took in the movement to honor the memory of the late 
Horace Greeley, made a full statement of the condition of the 
fund, and the progress made toward erecting a type-metal 
statue, b^'om what could be learned, type-metal would not 
be a lasting monument. He was, therefore, in favor of substi- 
tuting bronze. He also said that the hard times which had 
set in since the movement was begun would make it uphill 
work for the Union printers to complete the memorial 
unaided, and, therefore, they looked to their natural allies — 
their employers — to help to make it a success. It would be 
appropriate to have the employer and employed joining 
hands to honor a worthy craftsman. With such united 
strength, success was certain, and that very soon. 



PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENIS. 7 

After listening to the statement of Mr. Burke, the meeting 
devoted some time to a free exchange of views in regard to 
the feasibihty of the project. It was then resolved to organ- 
ize a Board of Trustees, to be entitled " The Trustees of the 
Printers' Greeley Memorial," with Thurlow Weed as Presi- 
dent, Peter S. Hoe as Treasurer, and William W. Pasko as 
Secretary. 

At the next meeting the following were appointed an 

Executive Committee: — Daniel Godwin, Thomas N. Rooker, 
and Lewis Francis. 

And the following a 

Committee on Construction: — 1'homas Burke, Lewis Francis, 
and Theodore L. De Vinne. 

It was decided that the memorial should be a bronze bust 
of heroic size, draped, set on a granite base and pedestal, with 
bronze bass-reliefs on the panels. The Committee on Con- 
struction received designs from several artists for the proposed 
monument, which were exhibited to the Board, and those of 
Charles Calverley (the sculptor of the bust of John Brown in 
the Union League Club) were adopted by the Board. The 
Committee was directed to engage Mr. Calverley to model 
the bust and tablets. The Committee was also ordered to 
invite bids for the erection of the base and pedestal, and it 
was empowered to contract for the faithful execution and 
construction of the same. At a subsequent meeting the Com- 
mittee was given power to have a granite coping erected 
around the lot, which is a circle of twenty -seven feet 
diameter. 

At a meeting of the Board in January, 1875, the Secretary 
was instructed to have the following letter printed for circula- 
tion amonsf the friends of the movement : 



8 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

MEMORIAL MONUMENT TO HORACE GREELEY. 

The Trustees of the Printers' Greeley Memorial respectfully announce 
to the printers of the nation and all friends favoring the movement, that 
they are now prepared to receive contributions to the fund, and can 
definitely say that the erection of an appropriate Monument to the Memory 
of Horace Greeley is assured. The Trustees feel it will be a pleasure for 
many, both in and out of the Craft, to contribute in aid of this commend- 
able object. For many years Horace Greeley has been regarded as one 
of the leaders in the art, and many of the improvements now familiar to us 
are owing to his suggestions. Those who knew him personally will need 
no reminder. 

Checks should be made payable to the order of Peter S. Hoe, Esq., 
Treasurer. 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 

Thurlow Weed. 

Peter S. Hoe, of R. Hoe & Co. 

Daniel Godwin, of Baker and Godwin. 

Charles C. Savage, late Redfield & Savage. 

Lewis Francis, of Francis & Loutrel. 

Theodore L. De Vinne, of Francis Hart & Co. 

Thomas N. Rooker, of New-York Tribune. 

George P. Rowell, Am. Newspaper Rep. 

Douglas Taylor, Printer and Com. of Jurors. 

Sinclair Tousey, American News Co. 

William W. Pasko, of W. W. Pasko & Co. 

Andrew Little, of Farmer, Little & Co. 

Thomas Burke, Ch'n Int. Typ. Union Com. 

William H. Bodwell, Brest. Int. Typ. Union. 

Hugh Dalton, Prest. N. Y. Typ. Union, No. 6. 
W. W. Pasko, Secretary. THURLOW WEED, President. 

Meetings were held from time to time, at 25 Park Row, 
to receive reports on the progress of modeling, confirm con- 
tracts made by the Construction Committee, and promote the 
financial work of the Board. Subscriptions came in, princi- 
pally from friends of the cause in New-York, and everything 
favored the erection of a suitable memorial. Much help 
was given the Board by the late John F. Cleveland, the 
brother-in-law of Mr. Greeley. One of the last acts of his 
life was to visit Greenwood, with some of the inembers of 
the Committee. 



PRELIMINARY ARRANGEMENTS. 9 

Thomas Burke, Chairman of Committee, reported progress 
at the session of the International Union held in Boston in 
June, 1875. 

He was continued as Chairman, with the following addi- 
tional members of Committee : 

D. P. Walling, Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Hugh Dalton, New-York. 
William McGrath, New-York. 
William H. Bodwell, New-York. 
James Harper, Montreal, Can. 

C. F. Sheldon, Kansas City, Mo. 

D. F. Hayden, St. Louis, Mo. 
J. R. Watson, Louisville, Ky. 
John McKenna, Albany N. Y. 
George G. Cooper, New Orleans, La. 
H. W. Wheeler, Baltimore, Md. 

A. Donath, Washington, D. C. 
A. H. McLaughlin, Chicago, 111. 
James Murray, Hartford, Conn. 
Mrs. Mary A. Danielson, New- York. 

The modeling of the bust was a slow process. The 
sculptor first made one life-size, and when it was approved by 
the Committee he began the larger one. In August, 1876, 
Mr. Calverley notified the Committee that the heroic size was 
ready for the inspection and criticism of the Trustees and their 
friends. The Committee visited the studio, made some sug- 
gestions, and after they were attended to, accepted the bust 
on behalf of the Board. The plaster models of the bust and 
tablets were sent to Philadelphia to be cast at the foundry 
of Robert Wood & Co. 

Early in November, Mr. Calverley informed the Committee 
that the castings were finished, and would be shipped from 
Philadelphia on the 25th of that month. The base, pedestal 
and coping had been erected during the summer. 

A meeting of the Board was held to make arrangements 
for the unveiling ceremonies, which were decided to be held 



10 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

on Monday, December 4, — the anniversary of Mr. Greeley's 
burial. The following gentlemen were invited to participate 
on that occasion : 

President — Thurlow Weed : Alternate, Lewis Francis. 

Chaplai?! — Yj\}^v^ H. Chapin, D. D. 

Presentaiioii Address — William H. Bodwkll. 

Poet — Edmund C. Stedman. 

Orator — Bayard Taylor. 

Master of Ceremonies — Charles C. Savage. 

These invitations were accepted, although Dr. Chapin was 
unable to attend on account of ill health. Special invitations 
were sent to the daughters and relatives of Mr. Greeley, as 
well as to the public and prominent men of the country, 
which announced that — "The Printers and Journalists who 
planned the Monument to Horace Greeley respectfully invite 
you to be present at the Unveiling of the Colossal Bust in 
bronze over his grave in Greenwood Cemetery, on Monday, 
the Fourth day of December, 1876, at half past one o'clock." 

A platform was erected on the adjoining lots capable of 
seating several hundred people on camp-stools provided for 
the occasion. 

The monument is in all twelve feet high. The base is of 
Quincy granite, and the pedestal and cap of a lighter colored 
granite from a Maine quarry. They are eight feet in height. 
On the eastern face of the pedestal is a bronze bass-relief, rep- 
resenting the youthful Greeley, composing-stick in hand at 
his case, and the artist has kept the face true to nature. 
On the opposite side is a bronze plate containing these 

words : 

HORACE GREELEY, 

BORN FEBRUARY 3, 1811, 
DIED NOVEMBER 29, 1872. 

FOUNDER OF 
THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE 



UNVEILING THE BUST. II 

On the north panel of the pedestal is a rude plow, and on 
the opposite side a pen and scroll, both emblems cut in relief 
from the granite. The bust represents Mr. Greeley as he was 
in his prime, ten or fifteen years before his death. It is 
worked out on the scale of a ten-foot statue. The bust itself 
is four feet high — full heroic size. The whole monument is 
surrounded with a .Quincy granite coping, twenty-seven feet 
in diameter. The monument cost about $6,000. 

Mr. Charles Calverley, of New- York, modeled the bust 
and tablets. 

Messrs. Robert Wood & Co., of Philadelphia, did the cast- 
ing of the bust and tablets. 

Mr. Peter Nowlen, of Brooklyn, executed the stone-work 
for the monument. 

Mr. Jacob S. Brown, of New-York, erected the granite 
coping around the lot. 

UNVEILING THE BUST. 

" The monumental bust of Horace Greeley — a memorial 
planned by American printers and placed over his remains 
on Locust Hill, in the western part of Greenwood Cemetery — 
was unveiled on Monday afternoon, December 4, 1876. 
About 500 persons, many of whom had been intimately 
associated with Mr. Greeley, were present, and the exercises 
were singularly appropriate and impressive. William H. 
Bodwell, formerly President of the International Typograph- 
ical Union, delivered the presentation address; E. C. Stedman 
read a poem which he had written for the occasion, and 
Bayard Taylor made an address of acceptance, commem- 
orative of Mr. Greeley's character and life. 

" It had been feared that the day, which had been chosen 
because it was the anniversary of Mr. Greeley's burial, would 
prove inclement, although it was as early in the season as 



12 THE GREELEY MONU MEN ']\ 

was practicable. But these forebodings were not borne out by 
events. The day was one of the most beautiful of winter, clear 
and cold in the morning, but warming with the sun until there 
was no sense of extreme cold. The hour fixed for unveiling 
was half past one, but long before that time many citizens had 
gathered at the platform, which had been erected on neigh- 
boring ground. It was estimated that nearly five hundred 
persons were present, many of whom had known Mr. Greeley 
during his life-time. Among them were Thurlow Weed, 
accompanied by his daughter and Charles O'Conor, Miss 
Gabrielle Greeley, Colonel Nicholas Smith and wife (formerly 
Miss Ida Greeley), Algernon S. Sullivan, Charles T. Congdon, 
Gordon L. Ford and family, Whitelaw Reid, Thomas C. 
Acton, Patrick O'Rourke, Edward A. Spring, Samuel Sin- 
clair and daughter, Clarence Cook, Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, 
Joaquin Miller, Mrs. E. C. Stedman, Demas Barnes, General 
P. H. Jones, Mrs. John F. Cleveland and daughters, Thomas 
N. Rooker and wife, Mrs. William H. Bodwell, Mrs. Lewis 
Francis and Miss Francis, General F. E. Mather, John Moun- 
tain, Daniel Godwin, Theodore L. De Vinne, Douglas 
Taylor, Andrew Little, Thomas Burke, William W. Pasko, 
General D. E. Sickles, T. B. Carpenter, General Clinton B. 
Fisk, J. L. Farley, Charles Partridge, S. S. Packard, John L. 
Schenck, Joseph L. Toone, Charles Storrs, General E. A. 
Merritt, John W. Harman, Oliver Johnson, Samuel Orchard, 
J. S. T. Stranahan, Charles Rich, John H. Folk, Charles W. 
Stoddard, William White, John L. Nelson, E. A. J. Michel, 
Philip A. Fitzpatrick, Patrick O'Dea, Rev. Sylvester Malone, 
W. F. G. Shanks. 

" Among the gathering, too, were several colored men 
who remembered the friend of their race, prominent among 
them being Louis Napoleon, recollected by all who ever 
visited the old Tribune office. 



UNVEILING THEBUST. 13 

" There were many favorable criticisms of the artist's 
work as to its faithfulness in details, and the successful 
representation in bronze of the fineness of the flesh. Louis 
Napoleon, the old negro friend of Mr. Greeley, said, how- 
ever, 'That 's put thar for him, and it '11 do; but it is n't 
Mr. Greeley, 'cordin' to my recollection. They 've got every- 
thing thar excep'n' that ole care-look of hisn.' " 

At 2 o'clock, C. C. Savage, a trustee of the monument 
fund and Master of Ceremonies, in calling the assembly to 
order, said : 

The day and the hour to begin the memorial services to our 
honored craftsman, Horace Greeley, have now arrived. Our 
worthy president, the Hon. Thurlow Weed, who expected to 
preside to-day, is with us, but informs me that his health makes 
it inadvisable for him to do so. He therefore requests another 
of our trustees, Lewis Francis, to act in his stead. 

Mr. Francis, in accepting this position, said : 

I thank you, gentlemen, for the honor conferred upon me. I 
do not think I will detain you with any remarks, for our programme 
is long enough in view of the fact that these exercises are in the 
open air. The Rev. Dr. Chapin, who was to have offered prayer, 
sends his regrets that the state of his health will not permit him 
to be present with us, and we therefore, rather than detain you, 
begin the exercises. I will ask Mr. Bodwell to deliver the presen- 
tation address. 

Mr. Francis then introduced William H. Bodwell, late 
President of the Liternational Typographical Union, who 
delivered the following address : 

Mr. Chairman : 

It has been thought advisable that a representative of the united 
practical printers of the country — with whom the project to erect this 
memorial originated — should be selected to present it to the public. 
When it is remembered that Mr. Greeley was among the very first in 
this country to move in the matter of organizing Printers' Unions, and 
was the first President of the New- York Typographical Union, it is 



14 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

perhaps well that this should be so. When the death of Mr. Greeley 
fell like a pall upon the nation, the working printers, looking upon 
him as the grandest and most eminent representative of their craft 
that this country has yet produced, immediately initiated steps look- 
ing to the erection of some suitable memorial to testify their admira- 
tion and respect for the great Printer. At first it was proposed to 
erect a statue to be composed of type-metal, but that material was 
soon found to be of too perishable a nature, and the plan was 
changed. This necessitated the raising of a larger amount of money, 
and for a time it seemed as though the project was in danger of fail- 
ing. But at this juncture the printers remembered that while they 
justly looked upon Mr. Greeley as the leading representative of their 
craft, yet his life-work had been given for the benefit of all classes 
and conditions of people, many of whom would be glad of an oppor- 
tunity to join with them in erecting this memorial. The subject was 
mentioned to a few employing printers and other friends of Mr. 
Greeley, and the response was quick and liberal ; abundant assistance 
was given, and the result is before you to-day. This is as it should 
be, and as I doubt not the great Editor himself would have desired it, 
for he was no believer in class distinctions. Writing upon this subject, 
when at the very zenith of his usefulness and influence, he said : 

"I do not with many others divide the community into two diverse, 
sharply discriminated classes, antagonized as producers and consumers 
respectively. In my conception all who are of any account are both 
producers and consumers, with substantially identical interests, suffer- 
ing by each other's misfortunes, and prospering through each other's 
prosperity." 

Therefore, Mr. Chairman, in behalf of the working and employing 
printers and those other gentlemen who have contributed to the erec- 
tion of this memorial, I present this bust of Horace Greeley to that 
public for whose welfare he labored so long, so conscientiously, and so 
successfully ; believing, as I do, that centuries after this granite shall 
have crumbled away, and the bronze shall have been beaten into a 
shapeless mass by the elements, the name of H^orace Greeley will be 
cherished and reverenced wherever freedom has a home and the 
English language is spoken. 

At the close of the presentation address, the bust, which 
had been draped with the American flag, was unveiled by 
the sculptor, Charles Calverley. The following poem was 
then read by E. C. Stedman : 



UNVEILINC THE BUST. 15 

THE MONUMENT OF GREELEY. 

Once more, dear mother Earth, we stand 

In reverence where thy bounty gave 
Our brother, yielded to thy hand, 

The sweet protection of the grave ! 
Well hast thou soothed him through the years, 

The years our love and sorrow number, — 
And with thy smiles and with thy tears. 

Made green and fair his place of slumber. 

Thine be the keeping of that trust ; 

And ours this image, born of Art 
To shine above his hidden dust. 

What time the sunrise breezes part 
The trees, and with new light en wreathe 

Yon head, — until the lips are golden, 
And from them music seems to breathe 

As from the desert statue olden. 

Would it were so ! that now we might 

Hear once his uttered voice again. 
Or hold him present to our sight, 
% Nor reach with empty hands and vain ! 
Oh that from some far place were heard 

One cadence of his speech returning — 
A whispered tone, a single word, 

Sent back in answer to our yearning ! 

It may not be ? What then the spark, 

The essence which illumed the whole, 
And made his living form its mark 

And outward likeness ? What the soul 
That warmed the heart and poised the head. 

And spoke the thoughts we now inherit ? 
Bright force of fire and ether bred, — 

Where art thou now, elusive Spirit ? 

Where, now, the sunburst of a love 
Which blended still with sudden wrath 

To nerve the- righteous hand that strove. 
And blaze in the oppressor's path ? 



1 6 THE (; R E E L E Y MONUMENT. 

Fair Earth, our dust is thine indeed ! 

Too soon lie reached the voiceless portal — 
That whither leads ? Where lies the mead 

He gained, and knew himself hnmortal ? 

Or, tell us, on what distant star. 

Where even as here are toil and wrong, 
With strength renewed he lifts afar 

A voice of aid, a war-cry strong ? 
What fruit, this stern Olympiad past. 

Has that rich nature elsewhere yielded. 
What conquest gained and knowledge vast, 

What kindred beings loved and shielded ? 

Why seek to know ? he little sought, 

Himself, to lift the close-drawn veil, 
Nor for his own salvation wrought 

And pleaded, ay, and wore his mail ; 
No selfish grasp of life, no fear, 

Won for mankind his ceaseless caring, 
But for themselves he held them dear — 

Their birth and shrouded exit sharing. 

Not his the feverish wish to live 

A sunnier life, a longer space, 
Save that the Eternal Law might give 

The boon in common to his race. 
Earth, 't was thy heaven he loved, and best 

Thy precious offspring, man and woman, 
And labor for them seemed but rest 

To him, whose nature was so human. 

Even here his spirit haply longed 

To stay, remembered by our kind. 
And where the haunts of men are thronged 

Move yet among them. Seek and find 
A presence, though his voice has ceased, 

Still, even where we dwell, remaining, 
With all its tenderest thrills increased 

And all it cared to ask obtaining. 



U N V E I L I N G r H E B U S T . 17 

List how the varied things that took 

The impress of his passion rare 
Make answer ! To the roadways look, 

The watered vales, the hamlets fair. 
He walks unseen the hving woods, 

The fields, the town, the shaded borough, 
And in the pastoral solitudes 

Delights to view the lengthening turrow. 

The faithful East that cradled him. 

Still, while she deems her nursling sleeps, 
Sits by his couch with vision dim; 

The plenteous West his feast-day keeps; 
The wistful South recalls the ways 

Of one who in his love enwound her, 
And stayed her in the evil days. 

With arms of comfort thrown around her. 



He lives wherever men to men 

In perilous hours his words repeat, 
Where clangs the forge, where glides the pen, 

Where toil and traffic crowd the street; 
And in whatever time or place 

Earth's purest souls their purpose strengthen, 
Down the broad pathway of our race 

The shadow of his name shall lengthen. 

" Still with us ! " all the liegemen cry 

Who read his heart and held him dear; 
The hills declare " He shall not die ! " 

The prairies answer " He is here ! " 
Immortal thus, no dread of fate 

Be ours, no vain mcnietiio nwri : 
Life, Life, not Death, we consecrate, — 

A lasting presence touched with glory. 



The star may vanish, — but a ray, 
Sent forth, what mandate can recall? 

The circling wave still keeps its way 
That marked a turret's seaward fall; 



THE GREELEY M O N U M R N T . 

The least of music's uttered strains 
Is part of Nature's voice forever ; 

And aye beyond the grave remains 

The great, the good man's high endeavor I 

Well may the brooding Earth retake 

I'he form we knew, to be a part 
Of bloom and herbage, fern and brake, 

New lives that from her being start. 
Naught of the soul shall there remain : 

They came on void and darkness solely, 
Who the veiled Spirit sought in vain 

Within the temple's shrine Most Holy. 

That, that, has found again the source 

From which itself to us was lent : 
The Power that, in perpetual course, 

Makes of the dust an instrument 
Supreme ; the universal Soul ; 

The current infinite and single, 
\yherein, as ages onward roll, 

Life, Thought and Will forever mingle. 

What more is left, to keep our hold 

On him who was so true and strong ? 
This semblance, raised above the mold 

With offerings meet of word and song. 
That men may teach, in aftertime, 

Their sons how goodness marked the features 
Of one whose life was made sublime 

By service for his brother creatures. 

And last, and lordliest, his fame, — 

A station in the starry line 
Of heroes that have left a name 

Men conjure with, — a place divine, 
Since, in the world's eternal plan, 

Divinity itself is given, 
To him who lives or dies for Man, 

And looks within his soul for Heaven. 



U N V K I L I N G T H E B U S T . I 9 



BAYARD TAYLOR'S ADDRESS. 

Bayard Taylor, on rising to make the address of accept- 
ance, was warmly applauded, and the marks of approval 
which interrupted and followed its delivery showed how 
cordially those present aj^preciated his estimate of Mr. 
Greeley. He spoke as follows : 



Mr. Bodvvell and Gentlemen ; 

As one who studied for two years in the only university at which 
Horace Greeley was graduated, — the composing-room of a printing- 
office, — and as his friend and associate for a quarter of a century, I 
have been called upon by the committee of journalists and printers to 
accept, on behalf of the people, this monumental bust. It is a fitting 
symbol of his life. It comes from the craft to which he belonged, and 
is received by the people for whom he thought, labored and endured. 
It restores to us who knew and loved him, and preserves for coming 
generations, the expression of his goodness and gentleness, no less 
than that of his intellectual power. His best ambition could have 
desired no more honorable memorial. Erected by printers to a 
printer, by workmen to a worker, by Americans to the representative 
of American honesty, independence and originality, this bronze could 
express no more though it were as huge as the Rhodian Apollo. 

It is well that the completion of a monument to Horace Greeley 
should have been delayed until now. When he was laid to rest here, 
four years ago to-day, a sharper blast than that of the opening winter 
blew over his grave ; but the misconceptions of his character have 
melted away as the snows from this mound, while fresh esteem and 
reverence have budded and blossomed above his tomb like the trees 
that shade it. The knowledge that thousands for whom and with 
whom he had labored for so many years — whose considerate respect, 
at least, he had a right to claim — were angrily alienated from him, 
cast a dark and tragic pall over the closing days of his life, and 
deepened the gloom which settled upon his empty place. But time 
swiftly repairs all injustice ; and those few years which, let us hope, 
have planted permanent if unspoken regrets in many hearts, have 
already placed in clear historic light the manly honesty and unsel- 
fishness of his whole life. Men begin to see that the transparent 
candor of Horace Greeley's nature was a rare and precious virtue 



20 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

in a man wielding his influence. They begin to understand that 
his poHtical course, from first to last, was determined by the opera- 
tion of the same unchanging principles. When there was a choice 
between right, as he conceived it, and temporary popularity, he never 
hesitated. When he seemed to overlook or disregard the cautious 
steps and carefully selected means of other political leaders, it was 
simply because he saw the distant result so clearly. A far-sighted 
eye may sometimes mistake the perspective of events, yet it does 
not therefore see falsely. The clearness of Horace Greeley's vision 
arose from the fact that he understood, as few Americans have 
done, the temper and character of the people. He kept his feet in 
their paths, and compelled his brain to work on the level of their 
intelligence. He knew, better than they, how their moods were to 
change, and their opinions to be recast by circumstances. His mind 
was a marvel, in its knowledge of local characteristics, interests and 
influences, from one end of the country to the other. No success, no 
distinction, no possibility opened to him of more eminent fields of 
labor, ever interrupted the acquisition of that knowledge or lessened 
the sympathy which grew from it. The broad base and keen intel- 
lectual summit of our national life were thus equally incarnate in him. 
While his brain grew, his hand and heart kept their early habits. 
The experience of the man deepened and broadened, but the unso- 
phisticated simplicity of the child remained. He was so naturally 
and inevitably good that his goodness almost failed to be reckoned as 
a virtue. With all the opportunities of development which he so con- 
scientiously seized, — with all his wide and varied knowledge of life, — 
there were three things which he could never learn : to mistrust human 
nature, to refuse help whenever he could give it, and to disguise his 
honest opinions. He has been compared to Franklin ; but, although 
he sometimes seemed to echo the economical philosophy of Poor 
Richard, he never succeeded in practicing its first maxim. Only those 
who stood nearest to him can truly know how his life was glorified by 
self-denial and self-sacrifice, by labor that never complained, and 
patience that never uttered itself in words. 

The strong individuality of Horace Greeley was equally moral and 
intellectual, and the lasting influence of his life will be manifested in 
both directions. His memory does not depend upon separate acts or 
conspicuous expressions : it is based upon and embraces the entire 
scope of his activity, the total aim and effort of his life. He would 
have been the last of men to present himself as a special model for 
the imitation of his younger countrymen ; but there are few who will 
now deny that this generation is better, more devoted to lofty prin- 



UNVEILING THE BUST. 21 

ciples, less subservient to the dictation of party, wiser, more tolerant 
and more humane, because he has lived. Nothing worthier than this 
can be said of any man. When most men die, the ranks close, and 
the line moves forward without a visible gaj); but hundreds of thou- 
sands miss, and long shall continue to miss, the courageous front of 
Horace Greeley. Like Latour dWuvergne, the first grenadier of 
France, his name is still called in the regiment of those who dare 
and do, for the sake of mankind, and the mournful answer comes : 
" Dead upon the field of honor ! " 

I should like to speak of his tenderness and generosity. I should 
like to explain the awkward devices of his heart to hide itself, know- 
ing that the exhibition of feeling is unconventional, and sensitive lest 
its earnest impulses should be misconstrued. But the veil which he 
wore during life must not be lifted by the privilege which follows 
death : enough of light shines through it to reveal all that the world 
need know. To me his nature seemed like a fertile tract of the soil 
of his native New Hampshire. It was cleared and cultivated, and 
rich harvests clad its southern slopes; yet the rough primitive granite 
cropped out here and there, and there were dingles which defied the 
plow, where the sweet wild-flowers blossomed in their season and the 
wild-birds built their nests unharmed. In a word, he was a man who 
kept his life as God fashioned it for him, neither assuming a grace 
which was not bestowed, nor disguising a quality which asserted its 
existence. 

A life like his cannot be lost. That sleepless intelhgence is not 
extinguished, though the brain which was its implement is here slowly 
falling to dust ; that helping and forbearing love continues, though 
the heart which it quickened is cold. He lives, not only in the mys- 
terious realm where some purer and grander form of activity awaited 
him, but also as an imperishable influence in the people. Something 
of him has been absorbed into a multitude of other lives, and will 
be transmitted to their seed. His true monument is as broad as the 
land he served. This, which you have erected over his ashes, is the 
least memorial of his life. But it stands as he himself loved to stand, 
on a breezy knoll, where he could bathe his brow in the shadows of 
branches and listen to the music of their leaves. It looks to the city 
where he lived and labored. Commerce passes on yonder waters, 
and industry sends up her smokes in the distance. So may it stand 
for many a century, untouched by invasion from the sea, or civil 
strife from within the land, — teaching men, through its expressive 
lineaments, that success may be modest, that experience may be 
innocent, that power may be unselfish and pure! 



22 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Taylor's address, the presiding 
officer stated that the Committee had received many letters 
from persons invited to be present, whose engagements had 
prevented their acceptance, but that in view of the discomfort 
of remaining longer in the open air he would not read them. 
At his request the Rev. Thomas Farrell of St. Joseph's Catho- 
lic Church, of this city, then closed the exercises with the 
following benediction : 

Bless us, O Lord, who are here assembled to honor the memory 
and the virtues of thy great servant, and grant us strength, O Lord, 
to imitate his example and to labor for the benefit of our fellow- 
creatures and our beloved country. 



THE LETTERS FROM PERSONS ABSENT. 

FROM JOHN G . W H I T T I E R . 

Oak Knoll, Danvers, nth mo. 28, 1876. 
Dear Friend : 

I deeply regret that it is not in my power to be present at the 
unveiling of the bust of Horace Greeley at Greenwood Cemetery on 
the 4th of next month. But in spirit I shall be with you. I knew 
and loved Horace Greeley for more than a quarter of a century, a 
period embracing the most eventful years of our national life. While, 
in common with all men, I recognized his great intellectual endow- 
ments and literary achievements, I always felt that the man was 
greater even than his works. If his crystal purity and noble simplicity 
of character, his unselfish devotion to duty, his absolutely unsuspected 
integrity, his generous and unstinted sympathy for the poor and 
oppressed, and his world-embracing love of liberty, do not entitle him 
to all that bronze or marble can express of the admiration and grati- 
tude of his countrymen, I know of no one in all our history who 
deserves a place in the nation's pantheon. 

I am. very truly, thy friend, 

John G. Whi'itikk. 



LETTERS AND TRIBUTES. 23 

FROM JOHN M c V I C A R . 

International Typographical Union, Office of the President, ? 
Detroit, Michigan, November 28, 1876. ' 
My dear Bod well : 

Yours of the 20th, with invitation to be present at the unveihng of 
the bronze bust of the late Horace Greeley, is received. Yourself 
and our friends could not possibly be more pleased to have me present 
on the occasion than I should be glad to be there. From boyhood 
upward I have been an admirer of "the philosopher of Spruce street," 
that sincere admiration never flagging for an instant to the present 
time, and never stronger than now. I considered him the grandest 
representative of the printer and journalist this country has ever pro- 
duced ; and though his heart may have been considered by some all 
too large — too capable and too ready to infold the sorrows of a large 
portion of his countrymen in its great sympathy — to permit of his 
being classed as a statesman, I have ever believed it was an honest 
heart directed by an honest head. All I could say in praise of Horace 
Greeley, or all the honors we as printers may endeavor to heap upon 
his memory, in any form, I consider but a drop in the ocean of his 
merits. But I am sorry to say that, disposed as I might be to attend 
the ceremonies proposed to be held at Greenwood on the 4th prox- 
imo, matters of business make it imperative that I should not be 
absent from home during the first half of December; consequently, 
I must respectfully but regretfully decline the invitation and the 
honor. My heart will be with you, however, and it is my earnest 
hope that a day of pleasant weather may be vouchsafed for the pro- 
posed ceremonies, and that all who attend may be fully imbued with 
the feeUng that he in honor of whose memory such ceremony is 
being performed fully merited in life the deep respect and reverence 
accorded him dead. 

Respectfully and fraternally yours, 

John McVicar. 
from wendell phillips. 

November 28, 1876. 
Gentlemen : 

Many thanks for the invitation with which you honor me to 
attend the unveiling of Greeley's bust. Engagements elsewhere pre- 
vent my coming to New-York that day to aid in this tribute of 
respect to the great journalist. 

Very respectfully, 

Wendell Phillips. 



24 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

FROM THOMAS MACKELLAR. 

Philadelphia, November 28, 1876. 
Dear Sir: 

I am in receipt of your circular of 20th instant, conveying an 
invitation to be present at the unveiling of the colossal bronze bust of 
the late Horace Greeley, and I beg the committee to accept my 
thanks for the compliment. If the condition of my health be favor- 
able I shall be happy to attend a ceremony in honor of so noble a 
man. When I was a printer-boy in New-York, I sent anonymously 
my first literary effort to Mr. Greeley, and to my great gratification 
and surprise he published it as written. This little incident, so flatter- 
ing to boyhood, fixed my regard for him ; and although I have never 
had a word of speech directly with him, all his life long he seemed to 
be a personal acquaintance of mine, in whose career I had a deep 
interest. He was not a perfect man ; he had his peculiar whimsies ; 
but, take him altogether, he may well and fittingly be ranked among 
the grandest men of our country. His deservings go beyond even 
the honor that we propose to render, for there are many aspects of his 
character that should be kept in living remembrance among men — 
young men in especial. Printers and journalists honor themselves in 
honoring the master printer and journalist of the age. 

Very truly yours, 

Thomas MacKellar. 



FROM GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. 

West New Brighton, Staten Island, December 2, 1876. 
Dear Sir : 

I thank you for the invitation to be present at the unveiling of the 
bust of Mr. Greeley. My only service upon the daily press was long 
ago upon The Tribune, when Mr. Greeley was editor, and however we 
may have differed in later years, I never lost the pleasant and kindly 
remembrance of him which all his associates in The Tribune of that 
time must retain. I regret sincerely, therefore, that it is impossible for 
me to join personally in the proposed tribute to an editor who long 
exercised so great and beneficent an influence upon the public opinion 
of his country. 

Truly yours, 

George William Curtis. 



LETTERS AND TRIBUTES. 25 

FROM THE REV. HENRY WARD BEE CHER. 

Brooklyn, November 28, 1876. 
Dear Sir : 

I regret that I am to be absent on Monday, the 4th of December, 
and cannot join those who hold Mr. Greeley's memory in deserved 
honor, in the act of unveiling the bust placed over his grave. Few 
men need so little as he to have their memory perpetuated in marble 
or in bronze. In a profession which is already rich in eminent 
names, Mr. Greeley stands among the very first, for knowledge, for 
sagacity and for pre-eminent personal and professional integrity. 
He lived in a momentous period of American history, and gave his 
whole soul to those truths and influences which are to shape the 
future of this Republican Empire. His name will always be 
associated with the cause of popular education, of industrial enter- 
prise, of universal liberty, and of those great institutions which make 
liberty safe and wholesome. 

Truly yours, 

Henry Ward Beecher. 



FROM THE HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. 

Utica, N. Y., November 25, 1876. 
My dear Sir : 

I have the honor to acknowledge your invitation to be present on 
the 4th of December at Greenwood Cemetery, when the colossal 
bust of Horace Greeley is to be unveiled. The printers and journal- 
ists have done honor to themselves by adopting a lasting mode to 
memorize and perpetuate the individuality of one of the most 
remarkable men of their profession, and I should deem it a privilege 
to engage with them in the observances proposed. The day appoint- 
ed, however, is that on which Congress is to assemble, and duty 
requires me to be in my seat in the Senate. I am constrained, there- 
fore, to deny myself the opportunity to do more than to express my 
warm interest in the occasion, and my hope that it will in all respects 
be satisfactory. 

1 have the honor to be your obedient servant, 

RoSCOE CONKLING. 



26 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

FROM JOHN W. FORNEY. 

Philadelphia, November 28, 1876. 
My dear Sir. 

I thank you sincerely for your invitation to be present at the 
unveihng of the colossal bust in bronze over the grave of Horace 
Greeley on Monday, the 4th day of December next, and I hope I 
need not say to my brother printers and journalists that I will be 
present unless unavoidably detained. More than forty years ago, 
while I was an apprentice, long before I rose to the dignity of com- 
positor, I learned to honor Horace Greeley, and during all the 
succeeding seas and storms of party differences down to the hour of 
his death, I followed his star as my best ideal of practical journalism. 

Very truly yours, 

J. W. Forney. 



FROM GEORGE W. CHILDS. 

Philadelphia, November 28, 1876. 
Gentlemen : 

I have the pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your invitation 
to be present at the unveiling of the colossal bronze bust of Horace 
Greeley, designed and contributed by printers and journalists as a 
token of their affection and of the high regard in which they hold the 
memory of their famous colleague. 

The printers and journalists who have planned and contributed to 
this memorial have honored themselves by the honor they thus pay to 
the memory of Mr. Greeley, who as printer and journalist was master 
of his craft and profession, from his composing-stick to the editorial 
chair of the important and powerful newspaper he established, and 
upon which he indelibly impressed his individuality. He made that 
newspaper a monument of what can be accomplished in journalism by 
one able man when gifted with the spirit of industry, indomitable 
devotion to business, and unswerving journalistic independence. 

Many of those who knew him well, and who hold his character 
and journalistic genius in the highest estimation, will doubtless be gath- 
ered about his grave on the occasion of the ceremony to which you 
invite me, and I would like to be among them, but fear that other 
demands upon me will deprive me of the opportunity to join them on 
that occasion. 

Very truly yours, 

George W. Childs. 



LETTERS AND TRIBUTES. 27 

FROM CHIEF-JUSTICE WAITE. 

Washington, November 30, 1876. 
Dear Sir: 

My official engagements are such as to make it quite impossible 
for me to accept the invitation you have been so good as to extend 
me to be present at the unveihng of the colossal bust over the grave 
of Mr. Greeley on Monday next. 

Whatever else may be said of Mr. Greeley, he was honest to his 
calling and true to his convictions. It would give me the greatest 
pleasure, therefore, to unite, if I could, with the printers and journal- 
ists in consecrating this work of their love to the memory of one of 
the greatest of their number. 

Yours, very truly, 

M. R. Waite. 



FROM W. D. HO WELLS. 

Cambridge, Mass., November 29, 1876. 
Dear Sir : 

It is with great regret I find myself unable to be present at the 
unveiling of the bust of Horace Greeley on Monday next. As a 
printer and a journalist I share the satisfaction which all printers and 
journalists must feel in the career of a man who honored their call- 
ing by his unselfish devotion through life to high principles and to 
every generous hope of human advancement, and who never forgot 
that it is the great duty and privilege of a self-made man to help 
other men make themselves wiser, kinder, and better. Thanking 
you for the honor of your invitation, 

I am, very respectfully, yours, 

W. D. HOWELLS. 



Letters were also received from the following, regretting 
their inability to be present at the unveiling: 

Gov. Hayes of Ohio, the Hon. W. A. Wheeler, the Hon. 
Hamilton Fish, the Hon. E. D. Morgan, Mr. W. C. Bryant, 
Gen. Geo. B. McClellan, the Hon. Francis Kernan, Mr. A. 
M. Clapp, Mr. S. H. Wales, Postmaster James, Mr. Murat 
Halstead, Mr. Sidney Howard Gay, and others. 



26 THE GREELEY MONUMENT, 

A REMINISCENCE. 

Burlington, N. J., April lo, 1876. 
Dear Mr. Burke : 

Yours of the 4th instant was duly received. * * * j remem- 
ber, as though it were yesterday, that being one day in want of more 
compositors, I mentioned the fact to some of the hands in the office, 
who I knew were boarding in places where there were other com- 
positors, and, after dinner, one of my men, named Seymour, who 
boarded in Chatham street, brought in Greeley. I was busy at one of 
the cases overlooking a troublesome make-up, when Seymour came 
up to me and said he had brought in a compositor. He stood in 
front of me, and Greeley was some distance behind me. I turned 
around and saw what appeared to be a boy of seventeen, flaxen- 
haired, hat on the back of his head, fustian pants which hardly came 
down to the tops of his boots ; in short, the traditional Yankee of the 
stage. I said to Seymour : " Is that a compositor ? " " Yes," said 
Seymour; "he is a queer-looking fellow, but they say he is a good 
workman." I was much in want of hands, and, with little faith in the 
experiment, gave him a case and copy. I was not a little surprised to 
find, when the week's bills were made up, that, where other compos- 
itors on the same work would make eight and nine dollars a week, 
Greeley would make twelve. (In those days compositors got only 
twenty-five cents per thousand.) It is against all rules, you know, in 
book offices to talk so as to disturb other workmen. Greeley's tongue 
was running all the time. There was no such thing as stopping it. 
Politics was the theme generally. It was in 1833, I think. General 
Jackson had just entered upon his second term as President, to whom 
Greeley was bitterly opposed. Greeley's most striking pecuHarities were 
his manner of dress — his utter disregard of all the usual forms of wearing 
any article of costume, and his habit of talking all the time. I 
remember, one day, one of the compositors asking him if he hadn't 
a patent talking machine in his throat. 

Yours truly, 

J. S. Redfield. 



[ From The Tribune, Dec. 2, 1876.] 

THE PRINTER. 

On Monday next the bust of Mr. Greeley, contributed by practical 
American printers, will be placed, with appropriate exercises, above 
his tomb. Such a testimony of respect, pride, and affection would be 
extremely congenial to his taste and sentiments, if he were yet with us. 



TRIBUTES. 2g 

and the honor had been deservedly accorded to another. No man 
could be prouder of his original profession. Long after he had aban- 
doned its active exercise he showed in a hundred familiar ways his 
attachment and his abiding sense of its importance, dignity, and 
usefulness. He was fastidious in his idea of good work, and never 
very tolerant of botchers or of blunderers. Any grave mistake in 
typographical composition or arrangement, any flagrantly bad proof- 
reading or press- work, any inferiority of the materials used, always 
sorely tried his patience and not seldom got the better of it. He had 
his own opinion of the shape in which matter should be set, and 
expected his workmen to conform to it. It has been said of punctu- 
ation that its main service is clearly to present the thought of the 
writer, but Mr. Greeley insisted upon such an arrangement of all the 
types as would most strikingly present opinions, and especially the facts 
upon which they were based. He never managed any journal upon 
the physiognomy of which he did not impress visible tokens of his 
typographical taste. These are most remarkable in the paper which 
he first printed — The New-Yorker, then in The Log Cabin, subsequently 
in The Tribune Almanac; while The Tribune itself still preserves 
many peculiarities of arrangement which it received from its founder. 
The practical printer, about whose shabby coat his rivals could never 
be sufficiently merry, was almost foppish in his captions, his distribu- 
tion of paragraphs, his use of numerical figures and of capitals, his 
employment of italics and full-face letter. We do not believe that 
Aldus the Elder, or Baskerville, neither of whom was a working printer 
educated to the business, was nicer than Mr. Greeley in his ideal of a 
liandsome form. Scholar in many branches of learning, and statesman 
by habit as he was, unlike many of the early printers so called, he was 
mechanically skilled in all the branches of the trade — in press-work, 
composition, making up, and proof-reading. He must rank with Plantin 
and his sons-in-law, with Franklin, and with the Didots. 

Indeed, it was probably to his first profession that he owed his 
success as a public man and a man of letters — at least, the peculiar 
and distinguished career which has inseparably connected his name 
with American history. All might have been different if, instead of 
remaining to learn the art and mystery of printing in the little office at 
East Poultney, Vt., he had followed the hard fortunes of his father and 
become a tiller of the soil in Pennsylvania. " A word from my 
mother," he said afterward, " at the critical moment, might have over- 
come my resolution ; but she did not speak it, and I went my way." 
He passed through the drudgery of his apprenticeship amid the squalor 
and confusion of an ill-arranged printing-office, the very place in 



3° 



THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 



which such confusion always becomes worse confounded. His hands 
were bHstered, his back was lamed by working the old-fashioned two- 
pull Ramage press, a machine which, we suspect, has sent many 
promising printers to early graves. Still he worked on, reading or 
debating political questions during his spare hours, intensely interested 
in political contests, and gradually acquiring that thorough knowledge 
of public men and of public affairs which was hereafter to distinguish 
him. Employment failed at last in Poultney, and successively in other 
country offices in which it had been obtained. " I would gladly," 
he subsequently wrote, " have given faithful labor at case and press 
through some years yet for $15 per month and board; but it was not 
to be had." New-York was to be tried; and the young country printer 
made his slow journey by the canal toward that city of refuge from 
enforced idleness and starvation. It would hardly be safe to say that 
if Mr. Greeley had remained in the ofiice of The Erie Gazette he 
would never have been heard of in politics, for Mr. Sterrett, the 
publisher of that journal, himself became a State Senator of Pennsyl- 
vania. But to New-York, by a natural impulse, the ambitious young 
man gravitated, and in New-York his remaining days were passed. 
He came here, twenty years old, with ten dollars in his pocket (to use 
his own words), " a decent knowledge of so much of the art of print- 
ing as a boy will usually learn in the office of a country newspaper," 
and " with his personal estate tied up in a pocket-handkerchief" Then 
the search for work began. Mr. David Hale bluntly ordered him out 
of the office of The Journal of Commerce, presuming him to be a 
runaway apprentice ; but finally he found a place in the office of Mr. 
West, in Chatham street, and work in the composition of a 32mo. New 
Testament, agate — the most difficult composition, on account of the 
references, which he had ever undertaken. 

The remainder of the story has often enough been told by others, 
admirably by hnnself, and it need not be here repeated. He was a 
printer; he was in New- York; and his newspaper enterprises, culmi- 
nating in the establishment of The Tribune, followed almost as a 
matter of course. He was a master of his business. He. was 
thoroughly enamored of hard work. He could live with the frugality 
of an anchorite. He was burned out; his New-Yorker newspaper 
only plunged him deeper and deeper in debt, which he abhorred ; but 
he struggled on, wasted neither time nor money ; was fortunate in 
making friends, as such men usually are; became acquainted with the 
great people who gathered at Albany ostensibly to enact our laws or 
administer them ; and so his life was always a life of progress, until he 
did such yeoman service for the Whigs in his Log Cabin, with its 



TRIBUTES. 3^ 

circulation of 80,000 copies, that his importance and ability as a 
political editor became thoroughly well known, and, " incited by several 
Whig friends," he printed on the loth of April, 1841, the first number 
of The Tribune. He felt " that the right sort of a cheap Whig journal 
would be enabled to live." He printed 5,000 copies and " nearly 
succeeded in giving away all of them that would not sell." He had 
achieved his stand-point — how worthily and devotedly he held it we 
need not say. To the last he loved the printing-office and the printing- 
office loved him. He kept those whom he employed well to their 
business; he preferred to have his printers intelligent, assiduous, and 
of steady habits, and those who fortunately united these qualifications 
were sure of his countenance, and of his assistance in days of adver- 
sity. When special demands were made upon the composing-room, 
occasioned by a " rush " of " matter," he not seldom encouraged the 
" hands " by his personal presence, and joined with them in a hasty 
lunch spread upon the "stone," seasoning the meal with many a 
cheerful jest, and sending them back to their cases refreshed and 
encouraged. The craft everywhere regarded him as its shining light, 
proudly joining his name with that of Franklin; and when the long 
procession followed him on his way to his last rest at Greenwood, no 
mourners were more sincere than those who had so often, from his 
crabbed and difiicult copy, put his words of wisdom into type, and so 
dispersed them broadcast over the whole country. On Monday next 
they will pay their last outwatd tribute to his memory; but from 
generation to generation of printers his name will be handed down as 
that of one who well knew and worthily practiced the Art of Printing. 



[From The Tribune of Tuesday, Dec. 5, 1876.) 

THE PRIiNTER'S MONUMENT. 

Four years ago yesterday the people of New-York voluntarily 
accorded to Mr. Greeley the honors of a public funeral. No official 
sanction, no elaborate preparation was required, but spontaneously 
from all ranks and conditions of men came the multitude which 
followed the philanthropist, the philosopher, and the statesman to his 
resting-place. Yesterday the occasion was simpler, but no one pres- 
ent will admit that it was less impressive. The day was clear, the 
winter sky was brilliant ; and as the old friends of the journalist 
gathered once more about his grave, their affectionate memories 
seemed to bring back for an hour the warmth and color of the 



32 THE GREELEY MONUMENT. 

departed summer. Far away the magnificent panorama of the land- 
scape was fitly marked by the towers and roofs of the great city 
which suggested his " busy hfe," his tireless industry, and the 
humanity, toil-worn and troubled, for whose release from conventional 
impediments he so assiduously worked and thought, and was always 
writing and printing and speaking. It was fitting that those who 
knew him best and loved him best should make this pilgrimage to his 
twice-honored grave. The gathering was large enough to show in 
how many hearts he is freshly remembered. There were old men, 
some of them the earliest of his friends, and others whose presence 
proved that death assuages all resentments. There were those who 
had labored under his direction, and who can never forget the 
lessons which he taught them ; while of the many hundreds who 
were there we may safely say that there was not one who did not 
recall Horace Greeley with a sentiment of aftection and regret. 

The exercises of the occasion were simple, and in keeping with the 
character of the man who was thus honored. The poem of Mr. 
Stedman was of a kind which Mr. Greeley would have liked, nor 
would he have asked for any higher eulogium than that his " life was 
made sublime, by service for his brother creature." A manly, honest 
elegy, with its sincerity visible in every line, it hardly needed the poet- 
ical graces with which it was abundantly supplied. And what is true 
of the poem is equally true of the short, compact and vigorous oration 
of Mr. Bayard Taylor, in which everything proper to be said at such 
a time was said simply and earnestly. A noble opportunity was 
afforded of enforcing the truth that " time swiftly repairs all injustice," 
and Mr. Taylor well improved it. In some respects the character of 
Mr. Greeley, so often delineated, has never before been so judiciously 
presented ; and especially may be noted the point that " he under- 
stood as few Americans have done the temper and character of the 
American people." This was the key-note of Mr. Taylor's address, 
and the thought affords a test by which the intellect and achievement 
of Mr. Greeley may be best tried and found most surely not to be 
wanting. 

Thus passed an occasion exceedingly gratifying to all who still 
cherish Mr. Greeley's memory. It was pleasant to them to see 
assisting by their presence, not only the young who may so safely in 
the conduct of life follow his excellent example, but the venerable 
editor, like Mr. Weed, and the venerable lawyer, like Mr. Charles 
O'Conor. It was equally pleasant to see so many men and women 
of letters improving this oi)portunity of showing how much they 
honored one who through native taste and resolute endeavor won a 



TRIBUTES. 33 

distinguished place within their ranks. Everything tended to show 
the permanent nature of Mr. Greeley's good name and fame. Death, 
which dims so summarily so many brilliant reputations, has only 
rendered his the brighter ; and it was the thought of more than one 
of those who yesterday retraced their way from Greenwood to the 
city, that this honored memory has passed permanently into history. 
The printers have shown both good taste and honorable feeling in 
the erection of this monument ; but long after the processes of nature 
have mellowed the bronze into a soberer antiquity, the life and career 
of Horace Greeley will afford a shining example, which those who 
toil intellectually or manually may ecjually follow with encourage- 
ment and profit. 



THE MONUMENT TO GREELEY. 

The bust, unveiled yesterday, which has been very carefully and 
conscientiously modeled by Mr. Calverley, is of colossal size, and 
cast in the most enduring bronze. It represents Horace Greeley as 
he appeared during the last three or four years of his life, fresh and 
alert in all his faculties, in spite of his age and unremitting labors. 
The likeness is excellent, although from the position of the monu- 
ment, on a detached knoll, it is rather difficult to find a good point 
of view. It ought properly to be seen on a level, yet it can only be 
seen from below, or in a profile, so near as to take away something 
of its character. The expression is that of the cheerful, kindly 
attention which the friends of Horace Greeley remember so well in 
his face, while he was half listening and half meditating his reply. 
The slight Hft of the eyebrows is very characteristic of him, and the 
modeling of the lips gives that suggestion of a coming smile which 
his mouth fi-equently wore in repose. The largeness, fullness, and 
beautiful symmetry of the head are very accurately reproduced. It 
is an entirely honest and satisfactory work, and the printers of the 
country have thus been fortunate in every sense, — in the achieve- 
ment of their honorable design and the selection of the artist to whom 
its most important feature has been intrusted. The likeness to the 
original is most distinct, and the character of the features most 
apparent, from a point about half-way up the knoll, and a little to 
the right of the approach to the vault. The monument is beautifully 
enframed by trees, and promises to have a fitting background of 
foliasre in the summer time. 



[Note.— It was intended to insert here the names of the subscribers to the 
Monument Fund, which number about three thousand two hundred, but a correct 
list cannot be obtained. The subscriptions were spread over a period of four years ; 
some of the earher hsts have been lost, and in several instances money was received 
unaccompanied by the names of subscribers. The Committee has, therefore, decided 
not to print an imperfect list of names.] 



iiff 



